CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Wednesday pledged his country’s continued support for Palestinian rights during talks with a visiting delegation representing the Fatah political movement.
The parties discussed the humanitarian and security situation in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Mahmoud Al-Aloul led the Fatah delegation, which included Palestinian officials Rawhi Fattouh and Samir Al-Rifai.
Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Shoukry and the Palestinian officials considered ways to halt Israel’s war in the Strip and curb growing settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank.
The Egyptian minister highlighted the need to put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and stop the Israeli practice of collective punishment which he said included indiscriminate targeting, siege, starvation, and destruction of infrastructure.
Shoukry urged the immediate implementation of a recent UN Security Council Resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire adding that world powers had a legal and humanitarian responsibility to ensure the full and sustainable provision of aid to the Strip.
On the UN aid agency UNRWA, he noted that it was important not to politicize its work and to resume its funding to allow it to provide vital services in all areas of Gaza.
The Palestinian delegation briefed Shoukry on the dire humanitarian and security conditions in the West Bank and Jerusalem and the unprecedented Israeli restrictions placed on Palestinians in Jerusalem and worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Shoukry denounced the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, the latest of which involved the ratification of the confiscation of 8,000 dunums (almost 2,000 acres) of land in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank.
He condemned attempts at forced displacement of Palestinians which he pointed out undermined the foundations of the future peace process and peaceful coexistence in the region.
Egypt, he added, would continue to push the international community to work toward a two-state solution to the crisis, recognize the Palestinian state, and approve its full membership of the UN.
